Greece was hit by rolling blackouts Monday as employees at the main power utility began 48-hour rolling strikes to protest the company’s privatization, part of austerity plans needed to avoid a national debt default.

In spite of a study by John Hopkins University showing that more children survived in those parts of Africa where there was NO Unicef vaccination programme, billions are to be spent on a new vaccination programme by Bill Gates with the UK government pledging £814 million.

David Cameron pledged £814 million to GAVI (the Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation) linked to Bilderberg Bill Gates in addition to the existing funds of £680 million between 2011 and 2015 to prevent diarrhoea and pneumonia in the poorest countries.

IN MAY 637 MEMBERS OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT VOTED AGAINST AN APPROVAL OF THE ACCOUNTS OF THE EUROPEAN MEDICINES AGENCY. ONLY FOUR MEMBERS WOULD APPROVE

By Kaysa Nynne Kledermann

An overwhelming majority of the European Parliament decided in May 2011 not to approve the accounts of the European Medicines Agency (EMA). This according to a report appearing in Danish media on June 10, 2011.

The Agency, that approves and monitors drugs at the European level, is mainly funded by the pharmaceutical industry.

The European Parliament asks for EMA’s financial structure to be analyzed in a report.

The accounts will be treated in the European Parliament for a second time in November.

There are several reasons for this parliamentarian landmark decision.

Among other things it happens in the wake of the withdrawal from the market of the slender means “Mediator”.

It took EMA no less than ten years, from the first reports of serious adverse events in the use of the slender means “Mediator” occurred, and until the pills were finally drawn from the market. Read more of this post

Treasury ministers have admitted that the Government is drawing up contingency plans for a Greek bankruptcy after being warned by a former foreign secretary that the euro “cannot last”, says The Telegraph

NEW YORK — A US regulator on Monday sued Wall Street bank JPMorgan Chase and Britain’s Royal Bank of Scotland, seeking to recover more than $800 million in losses incurred during the subprime mortgage crisis.

In its lawsuit, the NCUA charged the securities firms of the two banks had violated federal and state laws and made misrepresentations in the sale of hundreds of securities.

The regulator vowed to sue other banks that had sold credit unions mortgage-backed securities which plummeted in value during the financial crisis, without specifying which banks would be targeted.

“We expect to file additional actions and seek a total amount of damages in the billions of dollars,” Metz said.

Ahead of a key confidence vote on Greek Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou in the parliament on Tuesday, eurozone officials have increased the pressure on Greece to agree to sweeping privatisations and additional fiscal austerity measures, arguing there is no option for Greek lawmakers except to agree to the eurozone measures or face bankruptcy.

Of course, there is an option. It is called a managed insolvency and should have been implemented a year ago given the evidence that Greece is insolvent. The German government buried a recommendation for a managed insolvency mechanism by its experts in autumn 2010.

Also, a US senate investigation, in the meantime, has concluded that the financial crisis and Lehman debacle were avoidable. Equally avoidable are any bank crashes in Europe as a result of a Greek default, especially given the fact the tax payers and ECB are already by the far the biggest creditors of Greek, Irish and Portuguese government and bank debt.

Econmists say Greece should default, nationalise its banks and reintroduce the Drachma and reform their public sector at their own pace. A disorderly default now is far better than more fiscal austerity and hasty privatisations, which will only sink Greece deeper into ruinous debt.

More from the BBC on the make or break week for the euro with the eurozone officials openly pressuring Greece to continue down a path of economic ruin for the profit of American, German and French banks.

BBC, 20 June 2011

Eurozone finance ministers have postponed their decision on a 12bn euro ($17bn; £10bn) loan to Greece until it introduces further austerity measures.

The ministers said they expected to pay the latest tranche of a 110bn euro EU and IMF aid package by mid-July.

But its release depends on the Greek government surviving a vote of confidence on Tuesday.

Parliament then must also pass 28bn euros worth of new spending cuts and economic reforms.

Greeks have already seen wages and pensions cut and there have been regular, mass demonstrations – even riots – in protest.

The latest public opposition to the cutbacks involves Greek workers at the state-owned electricity company, who are on the first day of a 48-hour strike.

At a press conference on Monday, Jean-Claude Juncker, Luxembourg’s prime minister who chairs the meetings of the 17 eurozone finance ministers, said he felt for the Greeks: “This is something that affects me greatly. You look at the reaction of the people on the streets. You see they are rebelling. I understand that and I’m touched by that.”

Letting Greece default in a disorderly, uncontrolled way would probably be a good deal worse for the global economy than Lehman’s collapse.”

Greece crisis: Revolution in the offing?

Greece crisis

For more than three weeks protesters have occupied the square opposite the Greek parliament. They have pitched their blue and grey tents and hung their slogans from the orange trees.

“We got the solution. Revolution,” declares one poster. “Rise up people of the world,” urges another.

Inspired by the Arab uprisings, they have dug in to oppose further spending cuts in exchange for a second bail-out by the EU and IMF.

The encampment, however, hardly crackles with revolutionary fervour. It has the feel of an anti-globalisation village, nestled in amongst Africans selling handbag copies and bright-rimmed sunglasses.

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is depicted as riding the CIA/IMF plane. He is portrayed as a capitalist stooge.

“Start Quote

The mood is tinder dry. A city at a tipping point”

The activists bicker amongst themselves about real democracy.

“We have no leaders here,” said one proudly. They go into contortions about interviews in case by speaking out it is judged as assuming a leadership role.

No zeal

There are references to the revolutions of 1789 and 1848 and La Commune. But amongst the hammocks and tables there is no agreed agenda. If there is a unifying theme, it is hatred of the bankers and international capitalism.

They are indignant but they lack the will, the determination, the message, the zeal to shake Athens.

“Start Quote

No-one knows what this generation will do with their anger”

What they do do is to serve as a rallying point. In the cool of the evenings families bring their children here. They are a magnet for those who feel bitter and let down.

The latest poll suggests that 47% of Greeks oppose the latest package cuts as demanded by European paymasters and the IMF.

But more dangerous than the activists is the mood of ordinary people. They are despondent. As academic Yannis Varoufakis told me “above all they resent the loss of dignity”.

They dislike the bail-outs. It eats away at their pride.

Papandreou may win his confidence vote, but has a divided country to run

They no longer know who to believe. They were told last year that short-term pain would deliver results. It hasn’t. The German Chancellor Angela Merkel says Greece has “cut new borrowing by 5%. Remarkable savings but not enough”.

All many Greeks see is rising national debt and unemployment.

The mood is tinder dry. A city at a tipping point. Power workers are about to go on strike threatening power cuts amidst the stifling heat of summer.

Despondent

I went to Piraeus to visit a family. Roula, the mother, is threatened with losing her job. She says finding another, at her age, is all but impossible. The young are leaving. “This will be a country of old people,” she says.

Her daughter Barbara, 23, is thinking of emigrating much as young people are in Ireland and Spain.

This is the real crisis in the eurozone. A young generation lost, without work. The figures are staggering.

In Spain unemployment for 16 to 24 year olds is running at 43%. In Italy it is more than 25%. In Europe millions of highly educated young people are being denied the opportunity of working.

Unemployment is the real threat to the eurozone

The eurozone has proved a terrible trap for so many countries. The low interest rates, the easy money led to property booms, speculation, and piles of debt. Reducing the debt is now exacting a terrible toll on a generation.

In Spain they called themselves the “indignants” but no-one knows what this generation will do with their anger.

George Papandreou, opening a debate on a vote of confidence, has called for “national accord”. He said cash reserves would soon be exhausted. The image of national division was not helping the country survive. He offered a referendum in September on a new constitution that would make it easier to pursue corrupt officials.

He will probably win the vote of confidence on Tuesday. The week after, parliament will vote on the austerity package.

That will be a tense moment, with the risk of further violence. Even if there is another bail-out of around 110bn euros, Greeks have lost faith in the plan. All they see is debt piling on debt.

This is where the danger lies. A creeping despair. Injured national pride. Ten years of austerity.

Even so the bet must be that the Greeks reluctantly, sullenly, will go along with new austerity but I have sensed a despair that last year just wasn’t there and no-one knows where that will lead.

MADRID — MADRID-Tens of thousands of Spaniards demonstrated Sunday around the country, blaming the country’s economic crisis on politicians and bankers, and demanding democratic reforms.

Rallies were held in about 60 cities. Police and officials put the number of demonstrators at nearly 40,000 in Madrid, 20,000 in Barcelona, 18,000 in Granada, and several thousand in Valencia, Seville and Bilbao. No violence was reported.

About

Through my involvement with this group I have become a Judicially recognised ‘Public Watchdog’ on Metrowater and Auckland regional governance matters.

I have also been publicly acknowledged as an “Anti-corruption campaigner”.
I have started my blog so that those who are not on the email can access the information .

I was an Auckland Mayoral candidate – standing to help STOP THE $UPERCITY – the corporate takeover of the Auckland region, which has been forced upon the public majority without our lawful consent through a ‘binding poll’.

I stood in the Botany by-election as an independent candidate, on an anti-corruption / pro-transparency, anti-privatisation/asset sale platform.

I believe that is is high time that NZ got our ‘House’ in order, and established the legislative framework to prevent and fight corruption, and ensure genuine transparency and accountability in local and central government and within the judiciary.

I am currently standing in the Auckland Council Howick Ward by-election on the following ‘platform’:

NO RATE$ INCREASES!

CUT OUT THE CONSULTANTS AND THE PRIVATE CONTRACTORS!

OPEN THE BOOKS!

GIVE US THE NAMES OF THE CONTRACTORS; SCOPE, TERM AND VALUE OF THE CONTRACTS!

BRING BACK COUNCIL WORKS DEPARTMENTS!

PROVIDE COUNCIL SERVICES ‘IN-HOUSE’ AND CUT OUT ALL THOSE PRIVATE ‘PIGGIES -IN -THE -MIDDLE’!

If private sector provision is SO ‘efficient’ – then how come over the last 20 years rates have gone up – not down?)